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Friday, January 31, 2014

Today I'm showing Kleancolor - Pastel Yellow. I like this soft and pale yellow shade and I have two coats below, I think that the surface looked a bit uneven after application but with top coat everything get smoothen out. I really like the whole Kleancolor Pastel collection, sad thing the prices increased so much since last year otherwise I'd probably would have more Kleancolor polishes and maybe some backups too.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Got home a new perfume (a non spray one) today so I opened the cap to relive the scent and when I close the cap drips splashed right into my eye. 2 hours later it still feels weird in the eye, lol.

Today I'm just going to make a quick post about the base coat I'm using for the moment. Three bottles in a row I've used China Glaze - Super Strong Adhesion. And I think it has worked really fine, no chipping and not really any noticeable staining more than the usual which comes with nail polish use.

I'm really into large bottles (newer ending supplies) so I decided to try a new base coat. This time Seche Base - Ridge Filling Base Coat.

I don't really have a ridge problem at all, my nails are pretty smooth, but now during winter my nails have been brittle so I've been forced to "tea-bag" some minor damages and I figured that maybe this base coat could smooth the fixes up with less polish.

When I got the polish I realized that it was shimmery, which I didn't like but luckily it doesn't show so much on the nails, especially not at all with one coat. For fun I tried on two coats on the picture, to see how "white" it looks and it do look a bit white (even though the flash make it look whiter than it really is). So far I still like it, I think it will work great with french manicures (which was the reason why I was worried about the shimmer in it). Now I don't have ridges so I don't know if it work with that and I'm not sure it really helped covering the patches that much, maybe little? Other than that it seems very much the same as my previous base polish (like after a week's usage).

I guess I'll try the other Seche Base next time for reference. It's transparent and just a regular base polish. Some how I like the idea of the same brand behind both the base and top coat (since I love Seche Vite), like if there are more compatible. Not like if I've had any problems before though.

Bought it at Head2toebeauty for US$15.95 + shipping to sweden (4 oz + 0.5 oz = 115 ml + 15ml). In total it ended up with about $20 which makes a good price/ml in my opinion. :)

I'll update if I discovers anything new about this.

Have you tried this base coat? For me most base coats are just the same - just the price that differs, but is there any base coat that really sucks and that you really can't recommend?

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

This is the first Hare Polish at the blog, I actually bought a bunch of them in the beginning of last year but I haven't really come around to use them properly. Hare seem to have had a lot of positive feedback among bloggers and when I got them they didn't seem to live up to my expectations. But let's look at What I Wore To The Revolution from now known as WIWTTR for short in this post. ;)

WIWTTR has matte red and matte black hexagons in two sizes and also a whole bunch of shiny silver/pewter metallic micro glitter in a clear base. And this is the first problem, when wearing this I realized that I don't like shiny glitter mixed with matte glitter since the tiny micro glitter makes everything looks shiny which I don't like, when it's matte glitter I want them matte..
My second problem, which was self-inflicted, was that I thought I could make it cover. Below is five coats but as you can see it doesn't really build up to opacity. I have one coat of TC but for perfect smoothness I would have needed two. The plus side though is that it didn't end up even the tiniest bit being of feeling thick on the nails, it feels like two coats on the nails. However, this is obviously mainly a layering polish. My verdict then, WIWTTR could have been a favorite if the micro glitter wouldn't have been present and if the polish could be opaque alone. But, I still like it, it feels different and maybe I'm enchanted by the photos (I think it look better in the photos than IRL) but I'll definitely use it more times and maybe incorporated in a nail art of some kind. :)

I don't know if this is red enough, but if it is I'm joining Nerdcolours' Red Tuesday where more red polishes will be shown in a collage. ;)What do you think about this polish? What is your experience of Hare Polish? What do you think of this version without base, too naked? And if you had any suggestions of base color for this to be layered with, please help me by commenting below.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Hi, new week, new challenges. I've decided to join The Lacquer Legion, which basically (if you haven't heard of it it) is a monthly nail art challenge (more info here) . January's prompt is "reinvention" which is totally free for interpretation and it should be posted 27th of January and one should use the hashtag #LLreinvention. The hashtag works through different social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr etc so my contribution will be through Pinterest but of course I'll post here too. :)

When I thought about reinvention I was thinking about lots of different ideas but I ended up thinking of one specific nail art. That nail art was The Minnie Mouse nail art, which Lucie from Lucy's Stash had made. I really liked that idea and figured that I could use it for inspiration and make my version. If I'm going to be honest I think my "reinvention" is in the lower scale of "reinvent", it's not that different or "new" to the original but the interpretation of reinvention was free so..

Anyhow, I made a pastel pink and red gradient. On top of that I used my Minnie polish from Etude House which has Minnie/Mickey mouse shaped glitter (which I think look great here) and I also took a matte red and white glitter polish on top too since I liked the idea of pink glitter on top of the red and red glitter of top of the pink. I also freehanded the Minnie mouse, I decided to use almost my whole nail to paint her face to get the smile. I really like this nail art, and the use of red and pink together. Hope you like it too. :)

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Time for no. 16 in The Where In The World Challenge which happens to be Finland. I then learned that The brown bear is their national animal and I decided to freehand some bears and put them as a funky french. Adorable right? I must do this more times and perhaps bling them up some. And as usual for Sundays, I suggest you to check out Nail Art Sunday at Lelack where more nail art will be gathered during the day.

And yea..first I did them like the two photos above; NO smiley! But I realized that they looked so..emotionless.. so I added the smile line and that made them look so much better, don't you agree?

Saturday, January 25, 2014

What about another tutorial? A girl on facebook saw my pink and beige gradient Burberry nail art I did in the 31DC and she wanted a tutorial so I decided to make a tutorial of the original pattern. Optional to ad a gradient or change colors of course.

Just follow the pictures to create this.

You'll need a beige/nude color for the base and fine liners in black, white and red. A fine liner brush and regular polishes works too but I prefer fine liner polishes.

Paint the base and let it dry.

Paint a thick white vertical line to the side of your nail. (As you see the right side of the white line is in the middle of the nail.)

Paint another thick line horizontally on the nail. (A nice placement is somewhat where you'd paint a french tip's upper line.

Fill in the white lines with black as thin as you can. (Start with the outer ones)

Fill in the white lines with black as thin as you can. (Start with the outer ones)

Then paint the inner black lines. (Painting them last will make it easier to place the in the middle)

Paint the red line horizontally in the "middle" of the beige area crossing the white and black.

Paint the vertical line also in the "middle" in the beige area. (The two lines makes a perfect cross.) Make cleanup if necessary and apply top coat and you're good to go!

Ad a diagonal gradient like this one if you want to make it look different from the original.

Got any questions about this nail art? Or other requests? Just comment below. :)

Friday, January 24, 2014

I call them side-flowers nail art, maybe they should have been called "half-flowers nail art" or even "flower nail art"? But you know what I mean. Anyhow, every nail art blogger have their "signature nail art's", which don't necessarily means that the blogger invented the nail art it self but that the nail art is something the blogger often end up doing, because they like it and/or it's their safe zone.

You who have followed me for a while might have noticed that these side-flowers have turned up a lot. I enjoy doing them and they can really pimp up a french manicure or a regular manicure. For some weeks ago I was asked to make a tutorial of them and so I did. However, since it's free-hand it's hard to just give you the magic tools to make it, to paint with a thin brush takes practice but I'll give it my best try to show you how I do it at least.

Don't underestimate the power of trying the motive on a piece of paper

Since I've done this many times I don't need to draw them on a piece of paper ever time but if you're new to something and are going to freehand them, it can be good to practice some first. Preferably you can draw fingernails to the length of your own nail (not the monster version I did ;)) and plan;

How long can the petals be to fit my nail?

How wide should the petals be to be able to fit that middle line?

Placement; do you want them on the middle of your nail?

Other good things are to make sure that your fine-liner is as thin as it possibly can be and that the formula isn't thick (I thin mine with acetone if so). A tip could be to practice and paint on your toe-nails or even a piece of paper with the fine-liner brush. A manicure you're about to remove could also be a good practice area.

Above is the order I make my flowers. When I paint I make one full petal at the time and I ALWAYS start from the cuticle and slightly lift the brush at the end because that leaves thinner lines at the tip of the petal which looks more elegant. Many times, especially when I feel shaky I try to move the hand I'm painting on more than the actual brush because that leaves me steadier lines (try what works best for you). Here I've chosen to have my starting point at the middle of my nails which is a good choice because then the upper and lower petal easier can have the same length.After I'm done with the lines I dab a bit of top coat at the center to attach a rhinestone, then top coat allover to seal in the design.

Questions?Questions? Questions? ;)

Above I've done a collage of some side-flower designs. Those on the upper row are more newly made, like 2012-2013 and the bottom row is more like 2010-2011. Before I did more petals but I've found that three petals works the best for me and look the best in my opinion.

A girl on facebook wanted me to post a tutorial of my side-flower french manicure and I'm now prepping for that tutorial post as we speak. I did it pretty much the same as the last time except that I used dark blue rhinestones and I also noticed that my nails are shorter this time. Of course it felt like I had the shakiest hand ever when I did this, combined with thick polish but considering that I think it look great. :) Hope you like it too and stay "tuned" for the tutorial. :)

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Sometime I'm not that content with the nail art I've done and below is one of those. Inspired by this nude crackle manicure, which I liked, I decided to make a 100% pink crackle gradient and I guess I think it became too much and maybe the whole thing looks a bit "thick"? I don't know, what do you think?
Anyhow, it's Pink Thursday and there's at least no doubt that this is pink enough. ;)

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

As you might have noticed I adore matte glitter and here I'm showing one of my ebay findings from a brand called FACE it. From the description it seems to be a Korean brand (correct me if it's not) and I bought it for US $4.99 which is about 32SEK. In the description I've seen "Colored Paper Nails" so I suspect that could be a collection name and the specific name of this one is Bonny Girl, even though the bottle don't have that written on it.

The polish it self have white and pink tiny hex glitter, white and pink short bar/string glitter and white and pink heart glitter in a clear base. The glitter was really dense and it was easy to apply (no fishing or placing), below is 2 coats on top of a black creme base. I'm really happy with this polish and I recommend it and I'm looking forward to use it in some nail art soon. :)

I've got two more from the same brand as you see below and I've bought them from a seller called f2plus1 if you also want to check them out.

Have you heard about this brand before? Do you like it or is the string glitter too scary for you? ;)